39 6 MY LIFE 



£400 or £500 a year, I think it probable that I should not 

 have written another book, but should have gone to live 

 further in the country, enjoyed my garden and greenhouse 

 (as I always have done), and limited my work to a few lec- 

 tures and review articles, but to a much less extent than I 

 actually have done. It was the necessity of earning money, 

 owing to my diminishing income, that caused me to accept 

 invitations to lecture, which I always disliked; and the same 

 reason caused me to seek out subjects for scientific or social 

 articles which, without that necessity, would never have been 

 written. Under such conditions as here supposed, my dislike 

 to lecturing would probably have increased, and I should never 

 have ventured on my lecturing tour in America, in which case 

 I should not have written " Darwinism," and, I firmly believe, 

 should not have enjoyed such good health as I am now doing. 

 Then, too, I should probably not have accepted Dr. Lunn's 

 invitation to lecture at Davos, and my two later books would 

 never have come into existence. 



Of course this is all conjecture, but it seems to myself 

 highly probable. At all events, I feel perfectly sure that with- 

 out the spur of necessity I should not have done much of the 

 work I have done. I have always had a great desire to see 

 many of the beauty-spots of the world. Some of them I 

 have seen, but usually under strict limitation of time and 

 means. I have longed to visit the old volcanoes of Mont 

 Dore or the Eifel, both for their geology and their rich 

 flora; the Dolomites and the Italian lakes; Pompeii, and 

 Rome, and the lovely Riviera; Sicily and Greece; while 

 the little I have seen of Switzerland has made me wish to 

 see more. If I had had the means I should probably have 

 spent a good part of each winter, spring, or summer, in these 

 countries, and should have found such constant delight in 

 them, and in my garden at home, to which I should have 

 brought home every year new floral treasures, that I should 

 not have felt the want of any other occupation, and should 

 probably have written nothing but an occasional review or 

 magazine article. If, therefore, my books and essays have 

 been of any use to the world — and though I cannot quite 



